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Steamboat’s Nordic athletes continue World Cup success as the circuit’s season comes to a close

Annika Belshaw lays out over her skis while competing in the USA Nordic Junior Championships special jumping team event in March 2021. Belshaw has been dominant in 2023 World Cup events including two top-30 finishes most recently in Lillehammer, Norway.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat’s top Nordic athletes in Nordic combined and ski jumping competed in Norway over the weekend as the World Cup circuit comes to a close in 2023. 

In Nordic combined, the sibling duo of Niklas and Annika Malacinski continued to post top finishes as they have done all season long, and it was more of the same in their final World Cup events of the year in Oslo, Norway. 

In his first event on Saturday, March 11, Niklas jumped to 29th on the large hill and made up one place in the cross country race to finish 28th overall and just over five minutes behind the event winner. Niklas was the top American in the event. 



Annika also competed on Saturday in the normal hill event, where her jump had her starting 24th in the cross country race. She made up four spots in the race to take 20th place in the event. 

Niklas was back on the hill the following day and posted a 29th place jump once again, but he fell back to 35th overall on the cross country course. 



On the ski jumping hill, Annika Belshaw and her brother Erik Belshaw each showed improvements as the season finishes up at the end of the month. 

Erik joined the Malacinskis in Oslo, taking to the HS134 on Saturday. He jumped 114 meters for a total of 90.9 points, putting him in 42nd overall for the event. 

This would be Erik’s only World Cup jump of the weekend because only the top 30 advance for a second jump. 

Annika Belshaw was in Lillehammer, Norway, for two World Cup events. The first was on Monday, March 13, on the HS140, where she jumped to 27th on her first jump but came in 29th overall after her second. 

She was back on the jump on Wednesday, March 15, where she narrowly made the cut with an initial jump to 30th but took control of her second opportunity to move up four places and take 26th in the event.


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